DavidGilbert99 writes: "In an extraordinary move, the Chinese authorities have blocked access to Google.com, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, and many more Google services as the Communist Party of China holds the 18th Party Congress.

The blocking of these sites was reported by Chinese web monitoring site GreatFire.org, which said "Never before have so many people been affected by a decision to block a website."

The latest move in a long line of disputes between the Chinese government and Google, it is unclear yet whether this denial will be temporary (like a similar one in 2010) or permanent."